Harrison Schmitt

Harrison Schmitt is a former NASA astronaut and engineer and is currently an Adjunct Professor of Engineering at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Schmitt was also the Chairman and President of the Annapolis Center for Science-Based Public Policy between 1994 and 1998, and remains “Chairman Emeritus”. He is listed as a member of the Board of Directors of the Heartland Institute

The former U.S. Senator has been selected by New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez to direct the state’s Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department.

Climate Change Skeptic
Schmitt is a climate change skeptic who does not believe that "the human effect [of climate change] is significant compared to the natural effect." He also contends that climate change skeptics "are being intimidated" if they disagree with the idea that burning fossil fuels has increased carbon dioxide levels, temperatures and sea levels. Schmitt spoke at the International Conference on Climate Change (2009), hosted by the conservative think tank, the Heartland Institute. His critics point out that his affiliation with the Annapolis Center for Science-Based Public Policy, an organization that received more than $860,000 in funding from oil giant ExxonMobil in 1998, somewhat discredits his statements about climate change. He is also a member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, one of the last scientific organizations to accept the tenets of global warming.

In 2009 Harrison Schmitt submitted a paper to NASA which claimed the Earth was cooling. It included the claim that Arctic sea ice had returned to 1989 levels of coverage. It has been widely debunked as an absurd piece of cherry picking

           

Quotations
"Artic (sic) sea ice has returned to 1989 levels of coverage,"  "Environmentalists are communists"  "Natural warming is clearly happening but there is absolutely no evidence,no observational evidence whatsoever that the increase in carbon dioxide that has been measured in the last fifty years has had anything to do with that"

Related SourceWatch articles

 * Global warming skeptics
 * Heartland Institute
 * International Conference on Climate Change (2009)
 * SourceWatch:Project:Creating Articles on Sponsors and Speakers at The 2008 International Conference on Climate Change

External resources
"ArticGate" - Heartland Backs Schmitt in Climate Misinformation http://www.desmogblog.com/articgate-heartland-backs-schmitt-climate-misinformation

External articles
http://www.searchanddiscovery.net/documents/2004/schmitt/index.htm<P> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-h-gleick/misrepresenting-climate-s_b_819367.html